Would you eat a turkey brined at 68 degrees F?

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Bilby ~ you said your mother used to do the under the sink with ham? Ham is completely different than turkey. In our stores ham isn't even in coolers.
 
I'm just curious as to the differences - I sincerely want to know what the differences in handling are that you think makes raw poultry safer from one source than another.

btw, you're comparing apples to oranges when you compare ground beef (the cause of most cases of e. coli that I'm aware of) and whole poultry. But since we're doing that :) you may remember a couple of years ago a recall of organic spinach (among other leafy products) due to e. coli contamination: FDA Announces Findings from Investigation of Foodborne E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak in Spinach Many people think organic foods are safer, but that's not necessarily the case.



Sorry, I mistyped that. I meant to say half of all children died before their *fifth* birthday, and wouldn't you know, I can't find a reference for that. But I did find this: "(In 1850 almost half of all English children died before reaching their fifth birthday; Crowther, 1967)"

Do a page search for "fifth birthday": Science, civilization and society I'd guess the stats are similar for the U.S.

(emphasis added)

He's talking about cured ham, not raw poultry.

I added Alton's comments on PORK - to further cement the notion that the FDA and Mayo Clinic's tempuratures are way too hot. It was in repsonse to a post earlier about trusting the Mayo...

And you don't think using Spinach as an example isn't using an "apples to oranges" comparison?

Read the thread history here... again, my talk of Beef or any other meat type was in response to the Mayo and FDA temp recommendations.

Tell ya what - you go visit a Commercial Poultry processing plant - then visit a small poultry farm and you tell me the differnces in how the birds are handled.. :)
 
To the original post, I would not eat it period. I also would not be dining on leftovers from Thanksgiving as long as some folks on here seem to do. Just me.
 
6 hours at 68 degrees is deadly. Cooling it to 40 was an exercise in futility as far as microorganisms are concerned. Safe is above 140 or below 40.... Anything in between has a window of only 2 hours. Great that you didn't get sick....yet. :ermm: A raw turkey that sat at room temperature for 6 hours is a bullet from a smoking gun.
 
it's been 3 hours since I ate some...... wife is using me as a guinea pig - if I'm fine, then we'll feed the kids.. :P


Please don't give it to children. They usually don't have the capability to fight off food intoxications like adults can.
 
...Tell ya what - you go visit a Commercial Poultry processing plant - then visit a small poultry farm and you tell me the differnces in how the birds are handled.. :)


If poultry is infected with salmonella, it's often internal to the animal and the cleanest processing possible will not change that. The salmonella is not something the bird was exposed to, it is something it is carrying.

Improper processing is another issue. Otherwise healthy chickens can be exposed to bacteria and pick it up.

Either way, you can never be sure so should practice safe handling and cooking processes.

The points GB, Jennyema, bethzaring and VeraBlue make about the safety of the turkey are right on. You were extremely fortunate you did not get sick.
 
Would have been interesting to know the internal temperature of the bird at the
end of the incubation period. But then, I'm a geek.
 
Okay, someone asked me about the ham brining point. I made reference to our ham due to Post #27 which refered to brining meat or poultry and the best practice thereof. And if a ham was sitting around without any form of chilling in a shop, I would not be buying it. And if that is standard practice in that locale, I would just not eat ham! Simple!

Since I left this post last night, it has grown by an astonishing five pages and the main thread seems to have forked a few times. Personally I find the mixed topics with the ping ponging responses crossing over a tad weary reading. May I suggest that if anybody wishes to continue on deviated subjects, the next poster just starts a new thread? Just a suggestion. Feel free to ignore me! :)
 
Okay, someone asked me about the ham brining point. I made reference to our ham due to Post #27 which refered to brining meat or poultry and the best practice thereof. And if a ham was sitting around without any form of chilling in a shop, I would not be buying it. And if that is standard practice in that locale, I would just not eat ham! Simple!
The hams are both in cans and vacuum sealed and, no, they are not refridgerated. Curing helps preserve them. I've been on the east coast 4 years now and I see it all the time. If you were here, you'd likely eat it because that's how it goes. The fact is, comparing a ham and a turkey is like comparing a kangaroo to an emu. While they both can't walk backwards, one has fur and is a mammal, the other has feathers and is a bird. Both produce meat, but it's not handled the same. The same is true for ham and turkey.
 
I wasn't referring to anything from a can or vacuum sealed. Yes I would eat canned ham. Do here. Unrefrigerated vacuum packed ham - no. I still wouldn't. There are a lot of food practices in the world that I would shy from. I was referring to brining legs of ham, not canned, not vacuum packed.

If you refer back to post #27, the quote referred to MEAT or POULTRY. As I said, that is what I was responding to. You are directing your comment therefore to the wrong person. Whoever wrote the original post that was quoted in this thread, is where you need to direct your attention. So in this instance it is not like comparing emu to kangaroo - although we do have both pigs and turkeys in Australia, so I can understand your original comparison.
 
What's a "leg of ham?"

And another question for those in the states ~ do you brine ham? I don't eat the stuff but I've never heard of it being brined.

The kangaroo and emu was the backing up thing. I like the fact that neither can back up.
 
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A leg as in the thigh going down to the shank of the pig. Don't get the trotter attached. Brining it was just the way it was always done here. Of the day, most Australians of probably Engish decent did it the same way. Probably not the Europeans, they would have no doubt treated it differently if they had it at all. You only got these hams at Christmas time, so it was always a very special thing. The type we used to get aren't readily available any more, you have to find someone you can pre-order them from.

I know you aren't a pork/ham/bacon person (and I don't do pork either), but the ham was always delightful. Could not be stuffed up!!!
 
i would have eaten it.

poultry is definitely susceptible to more nasty organisms because of they way they're slaughtered (a higher chance of penetrating their organs, spreading the nasties), so i agree with cp on that one. that's why you constantly hear about washing up when cooking birds.

i also agree with charlie, and whomever made the statement about people from other countries having a much higher tolerance for food borne yuckies.

my final agreement is with verablue, on the fact that you have to be careful giving dodgy stuff to children. therein lies the conundrum. how do you safely build your resistance, and do you want to?

i was fed a lot of raw eggs and snuck a lot of raw meat out of the kitchen as a kid, so as of today, i've never gotten food poisoning. and i've eaten some stuff that was way beyond the fda's safe guidelines. i mean, i didn't go out of my way to do it; i trusted my nose.

now, i'm sure a few of the items i ate were beginning to go "bad", but because of my higher resistance, all i got was a minor case of diarrhea.

there's such a thing as being too clean, and then there's the arguement about "healthy dirt".
 
I wasn't referring to anything from a can or vacuum sealed. Yes I would eat canned ham. Do here. Unrefrigerated vacuum packed ham - no. I still wouldn't. There are a lot of food practices in the world that I would shy from. I was referring to brining legs of ham, not canned, not vacuum packed.

The unrefrigerated ham sold here in the southeast U.S. is dry-salt cured and will last for months, until cut into; then it requires refrigeration to keep it from drying out:
Ham and Food Safety
Smithfield's Ham Shop

It has a really salty taste and practically a crust of salt on the surface. I've eaten it but I don't like it much.
 
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